Reuters-The European Union on Tuesday (March 30) pledged 560 million euros at a donors' conference to help Syrians fleeing a decade of civil war in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the fifth annual conference to keep Syrian refugees from starvation, the European Union sought $4.2 billion for people inside Syria and $5.8 billion for refugees and their hosts in the Middle East.
Some 24 million people need basic aid, a rise of four million over the past year and the highest number yet since a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2011 led to civil war.
"The human cost of this conflict is unthinkable, awful. More than 400,000 people have died," EU Foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told participants at the start of the conference, adding the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the situation.
Fighting between Syrian army forces and rebels has subsided since a deal one year ago ended a Russian-led bombing campaign that had displaced over a million people, but Russian air strikes, along with Iranian- and Syrian-backed militaries, continue to attack rebel outposts.
